BEIJING:On Thursday, the U.S. State Department has declared its support with Japan over a territorial dispute with China in regards to the Diayou Islands. The U.S. military has pledged to defend Japan if necessary.

Reuters reports that, “the uninhabited islets in the East China Sea at the center of a bitter dispute between China and Japan are ‘clearly’ covered by a 1960 security treaty obliging the United States to come to Japan’s aid if attacked, a top U.S. diplomat said on Thursday.”

Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, told a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee that,“we do not take a position on the ultimate sovereignty of these islands. We do acknowledge clearly … that Japan maintains effective administrative control … and, as such, this falls clearly under Article 5 of the Security Treaty.”

According to Reuters, “he told the Senate subcommittee that recent violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China and other actions that stoked tensions were a growing worry to the United States.”

The U.S. and Japan signed the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security in 1960. Article 5 states, “each party recognizes that an armed attack against either party in the territories under the administration of Japan would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional provisions and processes.”